Glass

A glass is an amorphous, non-crystalline, solid material. Glasses are typically brittle, and often optically transparent. Glass is commonly used for windows, bottles and eyewear, but recently it has been used a lot in Architecture, for facades or even floors or roofs. In Caracas, the use of glass in Architecture has proliferated in the last 35 years. Before 1950, glass was only used at windows, but with the modernism and the international style of 50’s, glass discovered more extended uses in Caracas’ architecture, especially on institutional Architecture. But it’s not until 1966, when the CorpBanca Tower is finished in La Castellana, when glass became an important part of Caracas’ buildings facades. This tower combines glass and concrete, and it’s the first of a group of skyscrapers that would combine those materials. In 1972 is inaugurated the Previsora Tower, and in 1979 and 1984 the East and West Towers of Parque Cristal respectively. All those towers combine concrete with a big amount of glass in their large facades. Later, other facades combinations like glass and brick will be use in buildings like Torre Domus or Ciudad Banesco. In 1977, it was built Parque Cristal, designed by the Architect Jimmy Alcock. This building, is a 26 story cube, with a complete façade made of glass, where no concrete, steel, or brick can be seen. In 1994 was build the Centro Financiero Confinanzas, the third largest Caracas’ skyscraper. This huge building has not more materials in its façade but glass. After that, others buildings with only glass facades were build, as Banco de Venezuela tower, Caracas Palace Hotel, Hewlett Packard tower, Banaven Center (Cubo Negro), etc. So today, Caracas has lots and lots of glass buildings, especially institutional buildings, and that makes the city looks modern and contributes to keep the city rhythm as especial as it actually is.